How to Build an Awesome Gaming PC for $647

Need a new PC, but don't have a ton of cash? We'll show you how to build a machine that can do anything—from browsing the web to playing games to encoding video—for a mere $647

In many respects, it’s more difficult to build a great cheap PC than it is to build a more expensive one. In fact, the less money you have to spend, the more vital it is that every dollar delivers measurable value. With that in mind, we sat down with one simple goal: to build the best inexpensive, multipurpose PC that we would want to use ourselves. We didn’t start with any particular budget, but at every turn we shaved as much from the cost as we could—trimming the fancy case, ditching an unnecessary 800W PSU, and scuttling the spendy Core i5 CPU.

The result is an incredibly lean, but still powerful machine featuring a quad-core CPU, a GPU capable of playing anything on a 22-inch panel, and… well, you’ll have to read on to see the rest. Rest assured, though, this is a machine that would be welcome in any of our homes, whether we’re playing games, editing video, touching up photos, ripping movies, or simply surfing the Internet. Oh yeah, we’ll also show you how to assemble the components like a pro, one easy-to-follow step at a time.

And just to keep the whole thing good and honest, we stopped by our local Best Buy and bought the best comparably priced system they had, which we pitted against our ultra-budget machine in a steel-cage match to the death. Want to see who wins? Read on to find out.

Parts of the Whole

The key to building a killer budget PC is knowing where you can and can't cut costs

(click to enlarge)

A. Rosewill R220

An all-aluminum, toolless masterpiece of design the Rosewill R220 is not. It is an eminently serviceable budget mid-tower that will hold all the hardware you’ll ever need in your cheap PC. You should definitely beware of sharp edges when working in this humble enclosure, but you needn’t worry about your rig overheating, thanks to the case’s many fan mounts. And you won’t find a better looking case for $20.

B. Stock AMD CPU Cooler

While there are definitely better coolers out there, when you’re operating on a tight budget you can’t beat the low, low price of $0. The stock cooler that comes with the boxed retail version of a CPU is more than sufficient—at least until you’re ready to start overclocking. Stock coolers even come with a pre-applied thin layer of thermal paste, so you need not spend an extra penny.

C. Sapphire Radeon HD 5770

Oh, times are good when you can get technology so current it still has that new PC smell on it. In this case, it’s the scent of our ATI Radeon HD 5770 and its DirectX 11 capability. As we wrote this, DX11 titles were just starting to trickle out. Even without DirectX 11, this card is a capable performer in DX9 and DX10 games, too.

D. Cooler Master RS-460

The one place you shouldn’t scrimp is the power supply. Sure, there are cheaper generic supplies, but do you really want to trust your precious PC to a power supply that’s leftover Cold War surplus? We don’t think so. The RS-460 provides ample power for our budget PC, and includes all the necessary connectors, including a 6-pin PCI Express power connector.

E. Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12

OK, OK, we know 500GB is a little thin, especially in the days of $75 terabyte drives. But a bigger hard drive is a relatively simple upgrade down the road, and the single-platter Barracuda 7200.12 performs well, despite its low price and modest capacity. It’s not as speedy as some of the 2TB drives out there, but for $55, can you really complain that much?

F. Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2

MicroATX is normally anathema to folks who consider themselves power users, but when you’re trying to build a budget badass, it’s one compromise you should consider making. After all, besides the GPU, what other add-in boards do you use anymore?

G. Patriot 4GB DDR2/800

If technology were a theme park, RAM would be the old-fashioned wooden roller coaster. First, it was so damned cheap that consumers would cry tears of joy whenever picking up 2GB sticks. Now, the roller coaster is headed back up that rickety track and consumers are wondering how high it will go. Fortunately, we got ours at a somewhat decent price—but who knows what it’ll cost in a month?

H. AMD Athlon II X4 620

Intel may have introduced the first quad-core for the PC, but AMD’s the one who brought it down to a price the average Joe could afford. For $99, the Athlon II X4 620 offers the best bang for the buck available today.

I. Samsung SH-S223C

While there are higher-rated 24x DVD-RW drives out there, in the real world, where there’s no 24x media, Samsung’s SH-S223C is still a top dog. With great burning and reading performance, and the best DVD ripping speeds we’ve tested yet, this is the DVD-RW drive to beat. You say you wanted Blu-ray in your uber-cheap machine? It just ain’t worth the money, honey.

J. Windows 7 Home Premium OEM

Since the release in October, Windows 7 has received nearly universal acclaim, and for good reason. This is the best version of Windows Microsoft has ever shipped. With kick-ass security and the speed and reliability of Windows XP, there’s no reason to buy another operating system—especially when you can buy the OEM edition of the OS for just $105.

This is going to be my first build and I have pretty much looked up and found answers to all the questions I've had save 1, how do I check CPU compatabilty? I'm sure there is a simple answer, I just can't seem to find it. I have checked AMD's website and Gigabytes. Basically the listed cpu was sold out on newegg and since I am purchasing everything else from them I figured I would go ahead and order the CPU from them as well. Would this one work? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103885 If not, any suggestions for another? I suppose I could get the listed 620 from ebay if I have to. Thanks

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The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is a damn good cooler, and has been on MPC's Best of the Best list for quite a while. There are, of course, a variety of more basic, lower profile, lower price models available, and pretty much any of them will do for running at stock speeds.

You'll need paste with most aftermarket heatsinks, though, and IMHO, you can't go wrong with good old Arctic Silver 5. Though I've used Arctic Alumina for my last few builds, on account of having acquired a huge syringe of it from the local shop, and it works pretty well too.

I am a novice at this, and i cant seem to find the Rosewill R220 Case. i checked on Newegg and it said the product was "Deactivated." Can anyone tell me a similar working case or a link to another place where it can be found?

Hi i just want to say or ask that you info about this ring must be wrong,the reson what im saying it is cause the video card ya using for this ring ( Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCIe DDR5 DVI / HDM) is a 500 watt MINIMUM requirement and you using a 460 watt power supply. So This must be wrong can any one correct me if im wrong? The rerason im correcting this is cause i just bought the same Video Card and in the Requirements say 500 watt minimum. So i was ready to buy a new power supply i want to make sure i have to do it. (i have a 480 power supply)

They recommend 500W at minimum because they don't know what else is in your system; for all they know, you're running a raid array, a bunch of TV tuners, CCFLs, etc. As well, cheaper manufacturers are well known for overrating their PSUs by 100W or more. As long as you're using a good quality unit like the recommended Cooler Master, I'd even be quite comfortable going down to 400W with this system; maybe even 380W.

Built this machine piece-for-piece tonight after getting my shipment for newegg.

Windows7 will NOT install. When it gives the option to boot from the CDROM andI hit "Y" on the keyboard the screen shoots to a black screen with a bunch of H's down the side of the screen and a blinking white cursor.

Like this:

H

H

H

H

H

I thought it was a bad win disk, but it installs fine on my old comp, thought it might be my drive or bad build, but when I put an old copy of win xp pro in the dvd drive of the new comp, it starts to install just fine.

I've been in the market for a new computer for a while and have been looking into getting a desktop as opposed to replacing my laptop. This definitely looks like something I could afford and it looks like it would definitely run most of my games. And as a first time builder, the fact that this is a cheaper machine hopefully means that any mistakes won't be TOO costly (though costly still).

Took me about 2 hours to build it. I was really nervous at first because I din't use a anti-static wristwrap, but It worked out fine. I even dropped the screwdriver accidently on the motherboard, but no damage done.

I had no problems, everything installed easily with no problems. It's really fast and handles any game easily.

I can play Crysis, Dirt 2, Just Cause 2, Call of Duty, and other games at very high settings, and even record with FRAPS, and STILL get good FPS.

How about a FREAKING SOUND CARD?? The Soundblaster X-Fi 7.1 is now selling for 69.99, so you MIGHT want to grab it up while you can at this price. At current prices, WITH the aforementioned sound card, the total price is $652.90.

Just wondering is it alright to use windows xp pro instead of windows 7 and will there be a performance difference if i get win 7???. I already have a brand new xp thats been sitting around for a while and can save probabaly a hundred bucks in the process if i just use that.Anyways just need some advice.

This will be my first build and will be a huge upgrade from the computer I have had for about 6 years. I have all the parts now except for the videocard. On most of the websites like newegg and tiger direct I can't seem to find the exact video card in stock. There is the same hd 5770 and says that it is the 3L model. Is there any real difference besides the price tag between this model and the 2L model? Also they have one that is called the juniper model. I've tried to research these some but still haven't gotten the answers I need. Any help would be appreciated

I used some of the recommendations from this article to rebuild my aging P4 system that I had stuffed into a new Antec III Sonata case (dress on a pig, anybody?), so I already had a head start with the case, hard drive, PSU and optical drives. I wanted a full ATX board and didn't need onboard graphics so I went with an MSI mobo and DDR3 RAM, but I stayed with the recommended Athlon X4 620 and Sapphire HD 5770 and BOY I'm glad I did. MAJOR bang for the buck! Games like Mirror's Edge and Resident Evil 5 look fantastic --- actually they all do --- and the whole system cooks along nicely. I have to stay within my budget and this did the job.

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FWIW: I found a couple of articles on Tom's Hardware that indicate that the AMD Phenom with it's L3 cache is an improvement over the AMD Athlon but not necessarily for the value:

Comparing price against performance makes it crystal clear that true
budget-minded users shouldn’t (and probably wouldn't) consider the
Phenom II X4. The Phenom II X4 945 (3.0 GHz) starts at $170, while the
new sub-$100 Athlon II X4 trails fairly close behind on performance
when all other system factors are equal. AM2+ models of the Phenom II
X4 may start at $150 (Phenom II X4 940), but they don’t provide DDR3
support.

Overall, the main performance differentiator between the Athlon II
X4 and the Phenom II X4 is clock speed. A simple 200 MHz increase for
the Athlon II X4 would probably match the performance of a Phenom II
X4, despite its large 6MB L3 cache. Knowing this, you can be sure that
there will never be an Athlon II product that matches or exceeds the
clock speeds of the premium Phenom II.

We believe it’s important to consider the different market segments
that we inevitably blurred in this comparison. Phenom II is an
upper-mainstream to high-end product at $150 to $250, while the Athlon
II X4 targets the $100 audience. Still, it’s obvious that an Athlon II
X4 provides a great value, especially for users willing to overclock
the processor.

Finally, it remains to be said that L3 cache memory is imperative if
you want to reach the highest performance levels. At the 2.6 GHz clock
speed that we benchmarked, it may not be that obvious, but at 3 GHz and
up we see the Phenom II scaling much better than the Athlon II X4.

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Anybody having trouble with (no) audio after installing the Radeon 5770? I loaded the GPS into my old (and headed for upgrade) HP a1410n (Asus A8N-LA mobo) and found, to my horror, that Windows no longer thinks I have an audio device installed (which means that, for gaming, the whole thing is fubar right now). Similar complaints on AMDs website suggest that there's a conflict between the HDMI audio driver (which I can't use) and the mobo-mounted RealTek audio hardware. I'd be interested to know whether this shows up anywhere else or if it's just an HP thing.

My first ever build and it turned out great. Used all the components in the article except I used 2 Baraccuda 1TB drives and an Antec 300 case. Never would have done this had I not been a subscriber for quite a few years. Now a few questions.

I'd like to add a Firewire card into the exposed PCI slot but the card will be VERY close to the fan on the Radeon graphics card. Problem? I think so but wanted to check. Are there any other options out there to add a Firewire port?

When loading Windows 7, the option to make a NEW partition was greyed out. I'd really like to install Windows in its own partition. How do I do that now that Windows is installed on a 1TB drive?

This was my first ever build. Took around 1 hour, no mistakes woot. My CPU was set to run at x4 multiplyer had to change to x 14, but other than that this article was spot on. I can play WoW maxed out without the slightest problem. If you plan on making o partition in your HD to make a back-up, look out for the missing BOOTmsgr error. I had to put the disk back in, tell the comp to upload from drive and not HD, and then restore it and it worked for me. Once again thank you and best of luck to those thinking of building this.

Hi gang, I'm new to the whole building thing, I'm tired of having to pay extortion-worthy prices to lenovo and hp for sub-par parts and performance. This site has been a valuable tool for me, been saving for 2 years for a new future-proof PC, and have been checking this site 3 times a day for as much info as I can get for the past year. What I'm basically looking for is something to surf the web on, rip DVDs, watch movies on Hulu and Netflix without any delays, problems or pixellation, play java games like Yahoo spades, as well as AOE III with max settings, (and Stracraft 2 if it ever gets released), and probably Dungeons and Dragons Online with max settings and the new Star Trek Universe game. Not really much of a hardcore gamer on the PC, I leave that for my 360. Also, I would like to be able to multitask between watching movies , playing games and listening to music. Furthermore, I'm looking for something that doesn't consume a whole lot of power (if possible), I just moved and I don't wanna run up the electricty bill just yet. :) Thanks for any help you guys can give me!

I took this article as the basis for building my new machine, something that I needed to do, but needed to do on a budget. This article was a great place to start

I started with the basics laid out here but because of a certain professional advantage and a bit of recycling I was able to upgrade the chassis, power supply and motherboard turning the $647 (US) machine into a $837 (CDN).

With the Athlon 620 and Sapphire 5770 I'm playing Bioshock 2, Fallout 3 and Crysis with acceptable framerates despite everything turned on. Which is a lot more than I could say for the efforts I was getting from the DC5700 smallf form factor I was running previously (with Radeon 4650).

New system specs:

Athlon 2 X4 620

4Gb Corsair DDR3

Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard

WD Caviar Green 1TB hard drive (at $89)

2 WD Caviar Green 500Gb hard drives (recycled) in Raid 0

1 WD Caviar 320GB hard drive (recycled)

Silverstone ST60F powersupply (600W)

Silverstone Raven R2 Case (wicked)

Sapphire 5770 video card

LG DVD-RAM drive (seperate purchase)

X-Fi Xtremegamer (recycled)

Windows 7 ultimate (msdn)

There were some small issues due to the changes I made, like the Silverstone case wasn't build to accomodate the wire cage on the silverstone power supply, and that the cabling of the hard drives is less than accomodating because of the case design, but overall the machine rocks.

If I can put together a Cylong eye mod for the front bezel and perhaps take the time after I finish Bioshock 2 to reconfigure the hard-drives so i can utilize the on board raid properly perhaps I'll also move up to the 64 bit version of the OS, but for now I'm more than happy.

A $19 case? C'mon!! For $20 more, you could have at least put in a case with easier hard drive access, like the Cooler Master Elite RC-310. As someone who plays around a lot, trying to dig hard drives in/out of the front/back directed drive trays is such a pain in the butt!!

I had to use an old MoBo (til I can find the AM3 board to replace my original purchase) also ASUS and the 3000 XP chip that is on it. which limits me to 2 sata ports. Even still the HAF makes things alot smoother during installation. I have a 320 gig drive that I have to use since the board is not current enough to run the SATA 3 Hitachi.

I have the Athlon II CPU.

I have the OCZ ModX 500w PSU

I have the Hitachi TB HDD

I have the RAM

I have the ASUS DVD+RW drive

I have the Zotac GT 240 AMP Video Card (running an old ASUS card for the time being)

I even got the Case painted inside though found out when I fired up the early hardware with the PSU that only one Red LED fan was supplied. That's on me though cause I didn't notice that there was only one supplied with the case. Even though the blue is 3 230mm LED fans. Go figure.

I'm really peeved that my MoBo has not arrived. Got hold of the Vendor and they are going to refund the dough and so I have to figure out what will work with everything I got for a reasonable sum of money. Still I'm going to run ASUS, cause I've had the best luck with them. The MoBo I'm running at the moment is an old AV8. Sucks that I have to use old equipment to get everything on board but nothing ever runs 100 percent smoothly even when planned to the nth degree. Hopefully soon.

Update... well lucked into a board for free. So I got everything together. Now to get 2 LED fans since CM skimped on that part of the case. I have the Red LED fan up front. Everything works smoothly though. So I'll be posting the pics soon.

I'll be posting pics soon as I get everything together though. So keep checking back folks.

"If at first you don't succeed... Shoot the summabiotch. Problem solved."

The article was a great starting point for building a gaming PC. I don't want to increase the cost too much from the article objectives, but I'm thinking of building a gaming and family media unit as follows.

To keep startup, shutdown, and gaming fast, I'm increasing costs for a boot disk that is SSD onto which I plan to install the OS and the game itself. I think the paging file would go onto the larger SATA drive. The cost including rebates is at $910 and I'd like to see how you folks can decrease the cost to the $647 starting point.

I like your bild. However Via Newegg I can shave a buck on an ASUS drive DVD-RW drive(actually bought it) yeah its a buck but on a budget every George counts. Also same place I have a Free OCZ 500w Modular power Supply heading my direction. Will be here 15 February. So I'll take that 35 bucks I saved(after rebate) and plunk it down on a $89 TB Hitachi unit at ZZF which has a 15 dollar rebate on that and parlay that back to Newegg for a pair of 2 Gig GSkill 7 Latency Ripjaw sticks in DDR3. To pair with the same chip you got and an ASUS AM3 micro board.

Not only do I get what you suggested I get something a bit more modern. For roughly the same price.

"Wait..., you say, how'd you score that OCZ Modular PSU?" Combo deal. OCZ Gaming board retails for $179 all by itself. With the $100 on site rebate for that and a rebate for the PSU as well as $75 give or take on rebates I score a nice PSU goodie and get a solid KB for $68 bucks. Which makes me feel so good I spring the extra cash for the HAF 932 red LED tower. So all in all I come extremely close to the budget that you set and get a few more ponies under the hood. Oh did I mention that I also got an ASUS wireless card to connect on local internet which saves me $540 a year on a DSL provider?

I come in at $626 w/o video card. So lets go with the Zotac GT 240 AMP card through Newegg for $100 bucks because it's my Birthday on the 21st gotta splurge.

That gets me within spitting range of your build. Sure I skimped on the Video but I get free internet. I now have most of my parts and am waiting on the mobo and CPU.

How's my build looking now?

I'm doing and did this on my tax refund check.

Great article. I already had my build in the works before I read it. I'm glad that I will be getting virtually the same outcome but with more bang for my buck. Keep up the good work. It's articles like this that keep me reading.

Oh yeah my OS. I'll stick with XP for now. I already have a copy and can transfer my license w/o guilt since I'm the only owner of the license.

I should point out that by getting this MoBo and RAM Combo, I can upgrade to the Crosshair Formula III without having to get another 2 sticks of RAM unless I want 8 gigs onboard. Crosshair is going for $200 at them moment but the sales will inevitably make the upgrade a no brainer.

"If at first you don't succeed... Shoot the summabiotch. Problem solved."

Got my case a couple days ago, decided there is just way too much silver visible. Went to the Home D. and picked up a rattle can of Satin Black, electrical tape and longer screws to double up feet to get it off the ground a bit w/o using the wheels. Sorry but unless their beefy, I don't want static producers on my case. The tape is primarily to cover the bare spots that CM didn't take into account regarding upper drive components. $.50 cent fix.

Anyhow... spent all of last nite tearing it down to prep my HAF case for spray. There is absolutely nothing but steel and rivets on the frame now. Today (weather permitting, since I'm in the Northwest) I hope to lug it outside and give it a make over...

Sprayed it. Every bit of silver that is visible is now black except to the PSU tray. Looks almost professional too. No runs or drips inside. The back was also sprayed(don't understand how CM could let it go without doing this but...) and now looks really good. Has a few errors there but nothing too noticeable. All in all the fun part was setting the standoffs on the MoBo tray and then wrapping each one of them with masking to keep the holes free of paint. So now just waiting for the gear. Though I'm going to spring for 3 UV caths to mount on behind the motherboard tray. $30 added.

Got my OCZ PSU and Sabre KB today. Intalled the PSU fan up to cut down on the dust intake. Unfortunately my MoBo is on back order. Kind of to be expected however since ASUS MoBos are in high demand. So I get to figure out the 9 key programmable layering system on this Sabre KB. It may not be a Logitec board but if you can get your hands on one for substantially less than the MSRP, I definitely reccomend it. There are INFINITE settings for this thing. Newegg and OCZ teamed up to basically PAY me to get it. After my rebates come in its $68 bucks w/ a free ModXtreme 500w PSU. Unfrotunatelty the combo deal is over and it looks like Newegg will not be stocking this KB in the future. Removed every hint that they ever had it in their Warehouse.

Will update soon hopefully. Everything seems to be working in my favor other than the MoBo setback.

"If at first you don't succeed... Shoot the summabiotch. Problem solved."

If there's anyone who's building this, and talking up the build, I'd really like to hear your views on how well this handles the latest releases of games. I'm most curious about the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo. My current computer is too outdated to play the games from that past few years, and when I get to building my newest rig, albeit a poor budget rig, I want to be able to play at least BC2. Tall order, I know... but can this machine do it, especially with this mobos fsb? Thanks for the input!

The newest game I have played is Oblivion, and it runs great even at max settings. I have not tried Battlefield.

I built the computer exactly to the Maximum PC specs, except I added an additional fan to the side of the case ($10 from Best Buy). I love the computer. I did not expect it to perform this well, but so far it is really fast and plays games well. And I love Windows 7!

This was my first build and I was a little nervous, but it turned out well.